Other Voices: Media Day brings out the weird, worst and wackiest

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, January 31, 2006

It was kind of hard to tell amid the jostling in the scrum at Ford Field, where Bettis was holding court on Super Bowl Media Day. The return of The Bus to his hometown was almost as big an attraction to the media as the reporter in tight jeans and low-cut blouse from the BET network was to the players.

Joey Porter wasn't making matters any easier. Sitting at a podium next to Bettis, he was talking both loudly and quickly.

Until the questioning turned a little personal, that is. Like how it felt to be shot, as Porter was in the buttocks outside a Colorado bar a few years ago.

"Why would the guy ask me about being shot? What does that have to do with football?" Porter asked. "Is he trying to ask me about football or is he trying to get me to stand up here and say something wrong?"

Something wrong, of course. Any media type worth his salt knows there's nothing better than a good revelation to spice things up during Super Bowl week.

There weren't many to be found, though, in the annual exercise that provides notebook fodder for those who take the game seriously and funny video clips for those who don't.

And so it went on a day that the NFL uses to feed the voracious appetite of the assorted media, many of whom probably got the first police escort of their life in the bus convoy from the hotel to the stadium.

Once there, it was an hour with the Steelers, brunch, and then an hour with the Seahawks. All timed down to the second, with the giant clock at Ford Field ticking down the minutes left in each session.

The major newspapers and the major networks were all there. So was the kid from the Weekly Reader, and the Telemundo goofball who fashioned a Troy Polamalu puppet out of a miniature Steelers' helmet and someone's old wig.

It was mostly a day, though, for the media to get business done, and for players to get the media out of their hair. These are two blue collar teams without attitudes, and no one among the media had to worry about what the likes of a Terrell Owens or Keyshawn Johnson might do.

Likewise, there were no so-called media dressed up as cartoon characters and no Downtown Julie Brown in fishnet stockings.

Super Bowl veterans said it was among the tamest such days they had seen, either because the NFL was toning down the act or Detroit just wasn't a happening place to be.

The best stories here anyway were the real ones.

Hines Ward talked about how he dreamed of being a pro quarterback but has adjusted to life as a receiver, and coaches Mike Holmgren and Bill Cowher discussed the highs and lows of coaches who at times looked like they were never going to get to this game.

Up in the stands, Ray Rhodes discussed having to back away from some of his duties as Seahawks defense coordinator after suffering two mini-strokes, and 73-year-old Steelers' owner Dan Rooney talked about patience and old-fashioned football.